On Wednesday, amid tons of hoopla, Mazda revealed its fourth-generation Mazda Miata and the wonder of it all is how successful this car has been since it was introduced 25 years ago. There are all kinds of superlatives, chief among them being the fact that Mazda has made this the top-selling two-seat sports car of all time, with more than 900,000 of them sold as of February 2011.

The new car is not radically different from the third generation car that has been around since 2005. The little convertible features sharp new style, yet still from the mold that made Miatas distinctive ever since they were born in 1989 – it’s the classic image of the European sports car that, by the mid-Seventies, was disappearing from the enthusiasts’ world. And the few cars that were still around needed a riding mechanic to keep them on the road.

The Miata was actually the idea of an auto journalist – Bob Hall, then of Motor Trend – who in 1976 suggested to some Mazda executives that what the world lacked was that sporty, racy two-seater exemplified by such cars as the Datsun 2000, Alfa Romeo spyder and MGB, among others. The problem was that those cars were on the way out; the British and Italian ones were notorious for having constant breakdowns (remember Lucas electrics?) and auto makers just didn’t see this kind of car as a big moneymaker.

Hall eventually joined Mazda in 1981 as a product planner and was a key force in developing the car over the next several years.

The first Miata came out in 1989 and cost $13,800. It had pop-up headlights, a ragtop that could be easily opened up, a standard 1.6-liter or 1.8-liter four-banger and a proper stick shift. Most important, it started up every time you got in it and it got you from A to B, even if B was 3,000 miles away. It had that durability that made Japanese automakers so successful and, if something went wrong, which was rare, it was easy to fix.

The current Miata, the third generation, now offers a retractable hardtop and it’s the only hardtop I know that doesn’t collapse into, and fill up, the trunk. It has its own space.

That third-gen Miata is a pretty modern car, with power windows and air conditioning, but the feel of the old first-gen car is still there. Flop back that top, snick it into first, let out the clutch and take off. In a minute, you’re doing 60 and the wind is blowing your hair around.

Hopefully, the car that will be revealed Wednesday will have that same, exhilarating feel to it.

And to think it all came from the musings of an ink-stained auto scribe. Wonders will never cease.